


are you into me (like I'm into you)?

by orphan_account



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: F/M, basically how i think they first got together, give us the flashbacks cowards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22453654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: ricky is a dumbass, nini is baby (pre season 1)
Relationships: Big Red & Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Kourtney & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 6
Kudos: 108





	are you into me (like I'm into you)?

**Author's Note:**

> title from hello? by clairo

"You did what!?" Big Red almost yelled, sitting up on his bed as he watched Ricky tear a hole in his carpet with his pacing.

"Don't make me say it again"

"Okay, okay. So what are you gonna do now?"

"I don't know!!" Ricky flopped down onto Big Red's recliner, "I don't know what she thinks, I don't even know if she remembers it happened."

"You kissed her. Of course she remembers it happened."

"On the cheek! And you don't know that."

Big Red sighed, giving up. He offered a video game controller to Ricky and said, "Do you want to play something to take your mind off this?"

The kiss in question had happened the previous night. Ricky had spent the day at Nini's house, just like every other day that summer. They had talked, sung, and tried (and failed) to get their homework done, any possible guilt about not inviting Kourtney and Big Red forgotten in the laughter (and flirting).

It had been one of the rare nights that Ricky hadn't planned to sleep over or stay for dinner, so Nini had walked him to the door. After a quick "see you tomorrow", he had given Nini a peck on the cheek, and skated back home.

It was only when he was halfway through dinner when the reality of what he had done hit him. Ricky Bowen had kissed Nini Salazar-Roberts, the girl he had been crushing on for as long as he could remember. Oh shit.

____

"He what!?" Kourtney almost yelled over the phone as Nini flinched away.

"Calm down! It was only on the cheek! It probably meant nothing to him."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do. He's Ricky. He tells me everything. He would've told me if he had feelings for me."

"Would he? You tell him everything but you haven't told him that you like him."

"That's different"

"How?" 

Nini could practically see Kourtney rolling her eyes but she stood her ground. Ricky did not like her. It broke her heart but it was the truth and she would just have to learn to live with it. 

"It just is."

"Fine. But what are you going to do about this?"

"Nothing! He kissed me so I'm not going to bring it up unless he does."

"Girl…"

"Kourt, he's my best friend. I'm not going to ruin what we have over something as small as this"

"But you might not ruin it! You might, I don't know, finally start dating! Don't you want that?"

"Of course I do. But I'm not willing to risk what we have right now. Please don't fight me on this."

"Okay. I don't like it, but if that's what you want, I'm with you."

"Thank you. I love you. I'll talk to you later."

Nini hung up and lay down on her bed. She couldn't stop thinking about how Ricky's lips had felt on her cheek, and how warm it had made her feel, and how she wanted to kiss him again and again and again and again. She couldn't stop thinking about how she didn't want to learn to live with it. Oh shit.

___

The next day was a disaster, to put it lightly. 

Ricky, Nini, Big Red, and Kourtney went to laser tag, as they had almost every alternate day that summer. Ricky and Nini were on opposite teams but they refused to shoot at each other. The game ended up being boring as hell and Big Red didn't even enjoy winning. 

The following meal was a pain to sit through. They went to their regular café and sat at their regular booth. Everything was fine on the outside. But Ricky laughed way too hard at Nini's terrible jokes, and Nini was way too interested in Ricky's boring skate park stories. They were strangers trying too hard to impress each other, not Ricky and Nini, best friends slash partners in crime slash platonic (but also romantic) soulmates.

Both of them practically sprinted out the door the moment they finished eating, leaving Big Red and Kourtney alone with the leftover fries and awkwardness.

Kourtney broke the silence. "I take it he told you?"

"Yup. We need to do something about this."

"I say we lock them in a room together."

"Okay, cool. Let's do it," Big Red said, and left after leaving some money on the table for the tip.

"Wait, no!! Big Red!! I was joking," Kourtney called after him in vain. "Oh what the hell. Let's do it."

____

Operation Rini is Endgame was simple. Since both Ricky's and Nini's birthdays were coming up, Kourtney would call Ricky over to Big Red's house to talk about Nini's surprise party, and Big Red would call Nini over to his house to talk about Ricky's surprise party. They'd both go down to the basement, where they would be locked until they talked it out.

The fateful day came and everything went swimmingly. Neither of them suspected a thing, and both of them showed up on time. (Kourtney told Ricky to be there half an hour early to make sure he was on time.) Everything was going exactly as planned.

Except Kourtney and Big Red hadn't considered the fact that Ricky and Nini wouldn't talk. It had been ten minutes and neither of them had said a single word, about the kiss or otherwise.

After thirty minutes of sitting in silence, Ricky couldn't take it anymore. "Look, I'm sorry about... you know," he said, "It was a mistake, and we can forget about it. It doesn't have to be a big deal. We can just go back to the way things were."

Nini didn't say anything and Ricky was starting to panic when, barely audibly, she said, "But what if I don't want to"

"What do you mean?"

"What if I don't want to go back to the way things were," Nini said, gaining confidence, "What if I don't want to forget about it?"

"Nini, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I like you, Ricky," Nini stood up and walked over to where Ricky was standing, "I've liked you since seventh grade when you went to that dance with me even though you wanted to see Civil War that day just because I had mentioned that I wanted to go. I've liked you since the time I stayed up until 2 am to help you finish that science project and you begged my moms to let me skip school so I could catch up on sleep. I've liked you since eighth grade graduation, which you skipped to keep me company because I was too sick to go. I like you so much, Ricky. I know that stupid kiss on the cheek might not have meant anything to you but it meant something to me. And I don't want to forget about it."

Ricky's eyes lit up. He smiled so wide that his cheeks hurt. He took Nini's hands in his.

"Nini?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kiss you?"

Nini held back tears, nodding. She stood up on her toes, meeting Ricky halfway.

There were no fireworks. There were no butterflies. It wasn't anything like what the books said it would be. It was warmth and comfort. It was toasting marshmallows over a bonfire. It was writing random songs about nothing at 1 am. It was falling asleep in each others' arms while watching a movie and joke arguments about the tv shows they're watching and trying to make each other laugh in class.

It was happiness. It was home.


End file.
